Keeping stories fresh and authentic is sometimes hard for a writer, at least for me. I don’t always know how someone is going to respond and act. You can write up histories, do online quizzes in your character’s voice or mind, do lots of acting exercises to really understand your character, but sometimes it’s hard to capture the finer points of character and relationships if it’s all you. Some writers are very self-insert in that they write about what they know, or about themselves and people they know. Some writers, and this one is more me, have more of a multiple personality where the character is a full person almost inside their head. It’s hard to describe. But it’s like the character is a person you knew from some other time, a memory of a whole person in your head. Those are my favorite characters to write. People I feel like I know.
But even with those types of character, it’s sometimes hard to really feel the interactions. Finding a good roleplay group or partner is a great way to play out plots, situations, character development. The internet is littered with them. And as most writers suffer from the lovely disease of procrastination, you could easily spend hours “studying” your character this way. For me, it’s fun to bounce ideas off of people and have a support system from fellow writers this way. It’s fun, motivating, and inspiring.
How do you get in your character’s head? Are you a situational writer or someone who knows your characters like people? What do you do to keep your writing and stories fresh and authentic?
I wish I had a support system…but, well, I believe all fictional characters are fleshed out depictions of real people to some extent, sometimes of a few people put together.
I am definitely a situational writer. I have a hard time getting inside my characters heads so I just try to make sure they follow patterns. As far as freshness, I just have to write about something that I feel strongly about or it comes out flat. Nice post!